Parkinson's Disease: About PD
PD is named after British doctor James Parkinson who wrote the first book about the disease, in 1817. Parkinson called it, “The Shaking Palsy,” or “paralysis agitans.” In his day, the term “agitans” referred to tremors. “Palsy” meant weakness and “paralysis” meant paralyzed, so the condition was considered a disorder of weakness and tremors, which is not entirely true, as we shall see. Parkinson was famous in his day because of his political activities, his scientific publications on geology and his invention of the truss, in the days before surgery for hernias was available.

It took 100 years before the major brain changes were first noted in the brains of people with PD, and another 50 years after that before most experts agreed that these changes were, in fact, the disease process itself. In the early 1960s, we began to understand more about the importance of the brain chemical dopamine (di-ortho-phenyl-alanine). Shortly thereafter L-Dopa was introduced, the first substantive treatment for PD.  L-Dopa wasn’t very popular at first because it caused nausea and vomiting. Carbodopa was developed soon after, to prevent the vomiting, leading to the combined medication, Sinemet (sine=without, emesis=vomiting). This drug remains the single best medication we have for treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.